


weathering the storm

by KirstieJ



Series: TAZ Apartment AU [1]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: AU, Apartment AU, M/M, Pre-Relationship, domestic AU, storm fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-10
Updated: 2017-08-10
Packaged: 2018-12-13 13:17:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11760696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KirstieJ/pseuds/KirstieJ
Summary: One dark and stormy night, an elf sits alone reading by candlelight when a young boy detective knocks on his door looking for some company. The boy falls asleep and all seems to be going well until the ruff boi maintenance guy comes asking for the help of the elf, because the basement is flooding and he needs somewhere to put his beloved rocking chair. Also, a dwarf shows up looking for a light.





	weathering the storm

**Author's Note:**

> This is a fic written within an AU that I have only a few things written for because it's pretty big. But Taako and Lup live in the same apartment building as Merle, Angus, and Magnus, who also works as the on-site maintenance guy. Lucretia works for the apartment company as the on-site admin connection as well orrr something like that (Superintendent? probably?) Barry doesn't live there but spends a lot of time at both Lup and Lucretia's places, and they're super not even in the story but Carey and Killian move into the building on the first floor eventually too. 
> 
> The Taako/Magnus can prob be read as platonic, here, but I ship them so it's intended to be pre-romance.

At first, Taako isn’t sure if he heard a noise at all. After all, the wind and rain outside are nearly deafening. He’s sitting alone, reading by the light of a lamp in his cluttered living room. Just as he finds his place on the page again, though, he hears the noise once more. A small knock, he thinks. This time, it sounds just a bit louder. Taako turns the corner of the page he’s on so he doesn’t lose his spot and gets up, padding over to his front door to peer out into the dimly lit hallway through the peep-hole. In front of his door stands a young boy in sleep clothes, holding a pillow and looking nervous.

Taako twists the doorknob, putting a hand on his hip. “Kiddo, I’m not buying any of your scout cookies at 11 O’clock at night.”

“I’m not selling anything, sir,” the boy replies, clutching the blue stripped pillow to his chest. “I just… was wondering if you were still awake.”

“Well, I am,” Taako says. “And now you know that, so…”

The boy looks down, scuffing his foot against the floor. “Sir, um, do you mind if I come in for a minute? You see, I’m just having some trouble sleeping, and I figured you’d still be awake because elves don’t sleep much.”

Taako heaves a loud and long sigh. “Okay, fine. You can come in for a hot minute, but not too long.”

“Thank you!” the face of little Angus MacDonald lights up as he scurries in past Taako and goes to sit on the couch that Taako had just vacated.

Taako turns towards the kitchen, humming. “Do you want tea, warm milk, hot coco...?”

“Oh, I’m fine,” Angus tells him, still holding his pillow in his arms.

“I have chamomile,” Taako says with a lilt.

“Well, if you’re having some anyway,” Angus says with a little shrug. Taako turns on the kettle and summons two cups from the cabinet against the wall, grabbing two tea bags and placing one in each cup. The water doesn’t take long to boil, because Lup was making tea not 20 minutes ago. Taako returns to the couch with the mugs in one hand, spoons and a small bottle of honey in the other. He hands one mug to Angus and offers the boy the honey, and the two of them make their tea as they prefer it.

Taako blows on his tea as he sits on the other side of the couch. After a few moments of silence with Angus looking around at the various objects in and around Taako’s living room, Taako opens his mouth to speak.

“So, you decided to come bug me instead of your very own grandfather, with whom you live?”

“Well, sir,” Angus starts, looking over once Taako speaks. His expression is sheepish as he says, “I wouldn’t want to wake Grampa because he doesn’t always sleep very well. As I said, I figured you wouldn’t be sleeping at all so it would be better to talk to somebody who is already not asleep than to wake someone up.”

“Mh,” Taako says, sipping on his tea. “I suppose.”

“If I’m bothering you, sir, I can leave,” Angus says.

Taako sighs, “No, you’re right. I wasn’t asleep.”

“Was I interrupting something?” Angus says, a little guilty sounding.

“Nah. I was just reading.” Taako confesses.

“Oh! What were you reading?”

“It’s called ‘How They Met’,” Taako tells him.

“I’m not sure I’ve heard of it.”

“It’s a collection of romantic shorts, it’s a pretty light read.”

“It sure sounds pleasant. You can get back to reading if you like, sir, I’ll be quiet.” Angus takes a sip from his tea, curling up a bit more in his spot.

“Mmkay,” Taako says, finding his dog-eared page. After a moment’s deliberation, he flips through to the next story, then softly begins to read aloud. He glances up after a paragraph to see Angus paying attention, his pillow on his lap and the mug in both his hands. Taako continues on, eventually noticing Angus shifting around on the other side of the couch but paying no mind.

Before too long, Angus finishes his tea and puts his cup down, then moves his pillow against the arm of the couch and leans against it on his back. As the minutes go by, and Taako continues to recount to Angus the story of a couple who met on an airplane and fell in love not long afterwards, Angus settles more comfortably on the couch.

Angus generally prefers mystery novels, something with a puzzle to try and figure out before the characters do. This book is sort of nice, though, and it’s easier to relax because there’s less to figure out as he listens to Taako’s soft voice.

By the time Taako is halfway into the next story, about a girl roped into going to a prom with somebody she didn’t know but ended up meeting a much more interesting person along the way, Angus is snoring quietly. Taako slowly lowers his voice until he’s back to reading in silence.

As he reads to himself, Taako looks up to check on Angus every once in a while. He’s not at all surprised the boy fell asleep after showing up at his door, and, well, it’s not like Taako was planning on sleeping or even meditating anytime soon. He finishes the book before long, and then goes to his shelf to see if another catches his interest. An hour or two passes slowly with the wind and rain continuing to pound against their sixth floor windows.

Everything is relatively quiet. Taako can only just hear Angus breathing over the sounds of the weather, when he listens for it specifically. His sister dislikes the sound of constant ticking, so their clocks are all permanently silenced via magic, and the normal creaks of the building that come with this time of the night are masked by the wind outside.

Thus, the loud knocks that come to Taako’s door for a second time this evening startles the wizard, so much so that he jumps and the book he was flipping through leaves his hands for a moment. He looks over at Angus, who shifts a little, and then gets up to quickly trot over to the door.

This time, when peering through the peephole, Taako can make out a tall, broad guy with a worried expression on his face. Taako twists the knob, his brow raised.

“Magnus, the fuck?”

“Thank god you’re up. Sorry if I disturbed you,” Magnus starts. 

“Well, I mean, it’s 1am my man. What’s going on?”

“Okay, so, uh, the basement, is sort of flooding, and as you may recall I live there, so, I’m wondering, hoping, that you will let me bring some of my stuff up here so it doesn’t get, y’know, destroyed.”

Taako’s eyes go a little wide. “Oh, uh, of course, man. Yeah, for sure.”

A voice from behind joins their little conversation as Lup enters from the back hallway, wearing an oversized t-shirt and shorts. “What’s this commotion?”

“There’s a flood, apparently,” Taako explains. “I’m gonna help Magnus with his things. Good thing you’re awake, you can stay with Ango.”

“Shit,” Lup says. “Yeah, okay. What’s that about Angus?”

“He’s on the couch.”

“Hi, ma’am,” Angus says, having been drawn over by their chatter.

“Or right behind you, whatever,” Taako says.

“You have _got_ to stop calling me that, kiddo,” Lup says, but she reaches for his hair and pats it. He gives her a sheepish look.

“Um, so I already brought this with me, since it’s probably my most cherished possession or whatever,” Magnus says, turning and plucking a beautifully-crafted rocking chair from his side. The three of them move out of the way so he can place it in the living room. “I don’t have a ton of stuff but I’d like to keep the few things I have in decent condition, so I’ll just bring up the important stuff if you don’t mind. Thanks so much.”

“No problem,” Lup tells him.

“Alright,” Taako says, then waggles his fingers, “Levitation will make things much easier.” Magnus nods his head and the two of them leave the apartment, jogging lightly down the stairs to get to the studio apartment where Magnus resides in the basement of the building.

“I don’t think the flood has reached the boiler room, but we’re going to have to deal with it later if it does,” Magnus says as they reach the basement, going past the few maintenance rooms and supply closets until he reaches his apartment door. The place is pretty dry along the way, the leak is starting in Magnus’ room.

As soon as they get there, Magnus goes about grabbing a few things, personal items. Taako suggests levitating his bed to at least the lobby on the first floor, so he doesn’t have to worry about it getting soaked. Magnus agrees, so Taako sets out to do that in a couple pieces as Magnus carries his personal things back up to Taako’s apartment.

They continue with their mission for at least an hour, with Taako mostly levitating big furniture items and electronics to a pile in the corner of the lobby, including some of the stuff in Magnus’ workshop area in the room across the hall just in case the flood reaches there. Magnus takes various things that are important to him ranging in size up to Taako’s, where Lup and Angus are on the couch reading again. While they work, the lights flicker a few times, which causes them both to curse and grumble and pray that a power outage will at least hold off until after they’re finished.

Low and behold, as soon as they make their last trip up to Taako’s apartment with a few more knick-knacks that probably wouldn’t be reached by the flood anyway, the lights flicker one more time before the power goes out for good.

“Well fuck,” Taako mutters softly and Magnus lets out a quiet chuckle as Taako opens the door. “Lup?” he whispers loudly.

“I would sooooo fuck with you right now if Angus wasn’t asleep, but I know you’d scream like a tiny child so I’ll resist.” Lup is standing in the living room, lighting candles with her finger and placing them in random spots to give the place some light. Sometime between Taako leaving with Magnus and the outage, Barry had emerged from Lup’s room, and he’s now sitting on the loveseat with his glasses folded and hanging on his shirt.

“Did you guys get it all?” Barry asks quietly.

“Everything we could,” Magnus responds, keeping his voice low as well. “Thanks so much, Taako,” he turns to the elf, putting a hand on his shoulder “you don’t know how much this means to me.”

“Don’t sweat it,” Taako waves his hand, but accepts a light and brief hug from Magnus.

“Man, this thing is gorgeous,” Lup whispers a little loudly, placing a candle on a shelf near the rocking chair Magnus brought up.

“Yeah,” Magnus says. “It’s pretty comfortable, too,” he says, gesturing to it. Lup sits for a moment, running her hands over the arms and looking at the details.

“You’re right. I could just curl up here,” she sighs, “but I won’t.” She stands up and stretches out, yawning.

“Did the power go out?” they hear, and everyone turns to Angus, who is sitting up and reaching for his own folded glasses on the end table near his head.

“That it did, my man,” Taako says.

“Oh. I should probably check on my Grampa. He was asleep when I left, if he wakes up and I’m not there, he’s gonna worry.”

“Alrighty, I’ll walk you,” Lup says, picking up a candle.

“You sure, Lulu? I can take him and you can go back to bed,” Taako suggests.

“You just moved stuff around for, like, two hours, it’s fine.”

“I’ll come with you,” Barry says.

“I don’t really need an escort, anyway,” Angus pipes up.

“The emergency lights in the hall are pretty dim, kid,” Magnus says, and Angus just nods.

“Also, here,” Lup says, sliding her fingers under a cord hung around her neck and lifting it. “You can borrow my stone of far-speech, the frequency is automatically set to Taako’s. This storm has been going on for, like, eight hours now with no real sign of stopping yet, so if you wanna come back here just call up Taako and he’ll go fetch you.”

“Um, okay, ma’am.”

“Stop calling me that,” Lup says, as he takes his hand to leave.  

Magnus sits on his rocking chair for a moment, embracing the quiet around him as he strokes his thumb along one of the armrests.

“Do you want something to drink?” Taako asks.

“Nah, you’ve done enough for me tonight.”

“Seriously, it’s not that big of a deal. If you want, you can owe me one. But let’s be real here, if I came to you with any request you’d probably do it, indebted to me or not, because you’re a nice guy.”

“Thanks, Taako,” Magnus says with a soft smile, looking over at him.

“For the love of god, stop saying that,” Taako groans, but his lips quirk up in return.

“Y’know, it’s also my job to address your problems if they’re specific to this apartment, so I’d be obligated to do what you needed, just saying.”

“Whatever,” Taako rolls his eyes, but they leave it be at that.

They only get one moment of peace and quiet before there’s another knock on the door. Taako heaves another loud sigh and opens it without even looking out the peephole this time, but he finds he has to look down to see who is there.

“Merle?”

“Uh, hey. I burnt out my last match earlier today. Didn’t realize the power was gonna go out. I was thinking who might be able to help, then I remembered that elves don’t sleep and I know one of you has some sort of fire powers anyway so I thought: perfect! They’ll have a light. So, um, long story short, can you light a candle for me?”

Taako sighs. “Sure, sure. Come on in, join the party.” If Merle notices the sarcasm, he doesn’t act like it, following Taako into the apartment and living room with no response.

“Oh hey, Merle,” Magnus says from his spot on the rocking chair, sounding a little surprised.

“Hey Magnus! Uh.. what are you doing here?” he asks, then glances between him and Taako.

“The basement started to flood, Taako came to my rescue, helped me move my stuff out of the area.”

“Oh, shit. Well, that’s good you got your stuff safe, at least.” Merle plops down on the loveseat that Barry had been sitting on, lighting the long candle in his hands with the candle on the end table next to it.

“Yeah, it sure is,” Magnus says, yawning into his arm. He get up and rubs his eyes, pacing a few steps to keep himself a bit more alert.

A few beats of silence settle in again before Barry and Lup re-enter, hand-in-hand. Lup waves at them but doesn’t stop, pulling Barry with her to the back hallways and, presumably, back to bed.

Magnus plops back down on the couch before long, his arm on top of the pillow that Angus left behind. Taako, who has been fluttering around and tidying just a little bit in the meantime, picks up a blanket from where it fell to the floor earlier and drapes it across his own shoulders, yawning a little. He sits on Magnus’ rocking chair, pulling his knees to his chest.

Merle strikes up a quiet conversation with the two of them for a little bit, as Magnus gradually moves to lie down on the couch instead of sitting up. Taako remains curled up on the rocking chair, and Merle on the loveseat.

Not long after he starts fiddling with the stone hanging around his neck, Taako hears the noise to indicate someone is trying to reach him. He lifts the stone and gives a questioning greeting.

“Hey, um, sir, are you there?”

“It’s me, Ango. Sup?”

“Well, my Grampa did wake up for a little bit, only after I got back, but he’s sleeping again. But, um, I left my pillow there and I was wondering if I could go back to pick it up.”

“Course,” Taako says, shrugging the blanket from his shoulders as he moves to stand. “I’ll come to your apartment.”

“Oh, I can find my own way.”

“Nah, it’s fine,” Taako says, picking up a candle from the coffee table. “Be right there.” He lets the stone fall beneath his loose cold-shoulder top, then looks towards Merle and Magnus. “I’ll be right back. Touch anything, and you straight up die, don’t even test me. I will know if you do.”

“We wouldn’t think about it,” Merle assures him, and Taako grumbles.

Taako heads out the door, though, and makes his way to the kid’s apartment, exactly one floor beneath him. He raps quietly at the door, and Angus opens it a moment later.

“Hi, sorry to bother you again.”

“Eh, it’s whatever,” Taako says. “Ready?”

“Yes,” Angus says, pressing the lock in on his door as he exits it. The two of them make their way back up the stairs and Taako unlocks his door, guiding Angus inside with a hand.

Once they enter the living room, though, they are met with not one but two sleeping figures on the couch and loveseat. Taako sighs a little.

“It appears your pillow has been highjacked,” Taako tells Angus.

“Oh, um, that’s okay. Magnus deserves the rest after tonight,” Angus says. “I can sit on the rocking chair,” Angus says, then hops up. He wraps the blanket Taako left on the chair around himself, and Taako hides a smile.

Taako nods slowly and then wanders to the kitchen, grabbing a glass of water and puttering around for a moment or two. He sighs, rubbing at his eyes, then walks back over to the living room. His magical energy is wearing thin, but with what he has left, he takes a moment to levitate Angus. He ignores the squawk and sits on the rocking chair, pulling Angus to his lap before letting the spell drop. He puts his arms lightly around the kid, leaning his chin on the top of Ango’s head. Angus doesn’t question it, he only does his best to situate the blanket into a good position and shuts his eyes again.

Taako closes his eyes after a few minutes, listening to the sounds of the storm as the wind and rain continue to pound against the side of their building. He doesn’t fall asleep, nor does he allow himself to fall into a fully meditative state. He keeps a vague awareness about him for the next couple of hours, not able to relax entirely or let his guard down under the circumstances.

Even though he’s still somewhat alert, Taako doesn’t notice right away when Magnus begins to stir on the couch. He doesn’t notice Magnus shuffling around, opening his eyes and blinking them a few times until the adjust to the light.

Magnus, upon awakening, is a bit confused. He doesn’t know where he is or why he’s not in his own bed, so he gently sits up and peers around him while rubbing a hand across his eyes.

A couple of the candles Lup lit earlier are still burning dimly, so when Magnus looks over he can see Merle snoozing on the loveseat. As he scans the room, his eyes land on the rocking chair he brought up from his basement apartment, and the two figures seated on it. Angus, cradled in Taako’s arms with a blanket slipping from one of his shoulders, Taako, with his cheek pressed to Ango’s head.

Magnus suddenly feels a wave of emotion hit him upon registering the sight before him. His heart jumps into his throat, breathing becomes slightly harder, and he feels like he could cry at this very moment for reasons unbeknownst to him. After a moment or two, he takes in a sharp breath and bites down hard on his lip, trying to keep his emotional reaction at bay.

All he can think of is how quiet, how picturesque and serene the two of them look. The realization hits him, then, that his own prized creation has never been used for it’s intended purpose. Since he made it, it’s mostly been a decorative piece. He rarely sits it in himself, occasionally friends will sit for a short amount of time. Never has he witnessed anybody cradling a child in the chair, and even though Angus is a little bit older than the intended age, Magnus now has a better understanding of why the sight is making him so emotional at four o’clock in the morning.

And once Magnus starts to think of the purpose of the chair, he begins to think of how the _real_ purpose of that specific chair is no longer capable of being fulfilled. The chair was for his wife, his Julia, and it held the potential for becoming the chair for rocking _their_ child to sleep. Now, that can never happen. Magnus continues to find it hard to breath as he feels the familiar pain and loss associated with thoughts of her, and of the life he thought he would have, the life that was taken by cruel fate or something like that.

He sniffles and wipes his eyes as he takes another shuttering breath. This is what causes Taako to finally take notice of the other person waking. He opens his eyes and blinks to see Magnus, sitting up on the couch and brushing a tear or two from his cheek. Taako tilts his head away from Angus.

“Hey,” Taako says softly after a moment, and Magnus’ eyes snap to his. “What’s wrong there, big guy?”

“Huh? Oh, uh, it’s-it’s nothing, Taako. I guess this was just sort of an overwhelming night?” Magnus says, not telling the complete truth.

“Yeah,” Taako agrees. He doesn’t believe that’s all there is to it, but he doesn’t push Magnus. “I hate storms.”

“I usually don’t mind them so much,” Magnus says with a shrug, “but this is worse than our usual storm.”

“Yeah,” Taako says again. Magnus sniffles once more and rubs a hand over his face. Taako presses his lips together for a moment before he gently levitates Agnus from his lap again and slides out of the chair, then delicately places Angus down with the help of magic. “Can I get you some water, or something?”

“That.. would be nice,” Magnus agrees, keeping his voice down. So Taako gets him some water, feet silent on the floor. He brings Magnus a glass and perches himself on the couch, pulling his long hair over one shoulder and yawning.

“Have you slept at all?” Magnus asks, “or meditated, or whatever?”

Taako shakes his head no, “Neither.”

“Why not? You must be exhausted,” Magnus says, and Taako just shrugs.

“I really don’t like storms,” is all the explanation Taako offers.

“Well, look, why don’t you lie down? I’m right here, you don’t have anything to worry about.”

“I’m fine, Mags,” Taako says.

“Please? You still don’t have to sleep, but, hey. That rocking chair looks really pretty, and it’s comfortable for a little while, but it’s not exactly great for long-term use. It was always supposed to have a nice cushion on it but I never got around to buying one after-“ Magnus cuts himself off and shuts his eyes.

“After?” Taako perks an eyebrow.

“Um,” Magnus twists his mouth into a frown, glancing at the floor and then at Taako. “Just..  Julia.”

“Oh,” Taako murmurs.

“Yeah, uh, it was for her. Or, us, I guess? I dunno, it was, it was for the future.”

Taako nods slowly, “I think I’m picking up what you’re putting down. I’m sorry.”

“Thank you,” Magnus says quietly. “Anyway, my point was, your back is probably not happy with you after sitting with a preteen on your lap. Lie down.”

Taako just scoffs. “I’ve remained in less comfortable positions for longer durations of time. It’s okay, Magnus. You should lie back down, you did all the heavy lifting earlier. I straight up am not going to fall asleep or meditate tonight, so it’s whatever.”

“Still, laying down is more restful then sitting up. C’mon, your couch is big enough for us to squeeze together, we can even lie at opposite ends if you prefer.”

“If I lie down, will you give it up and go back to sleep?”

“Almost definitely.”

Taako sighs, but there’s a hint of laughter a moment later. “Fine, fine. You get yourself situated first.”

“Okay,” Magnus shifts so he can lie back down, his head on the pillow Angus brought. He glances over and feels a twinge of guilt for Angus now curled up without Taako as a cushion or his own pillow, but to try to give it back would probably just wake Angus up again. Magnus turns his head to instead look at Taako expectantly, staring intently.

“Quit it,” Taako says, rolling his eyes upwards as he lies beside Magnus on his side. Magnus is a little surprised but secretly pleased that Taako didn’t take the other side. “There’s only one pillow, which reminds me, I need to get some nice throw pillows up in here because there is a serious lack thereof.”

Magnus doesn’t realize until a while later that a pillow could almost certainly be found in Taako’s bedroom, if he were to get up and look for one. “Okay,” Magnus whispers, settling a little more into the couch. In order to fit, Taako is pressed pretty close to him, and Magnus carefully places one arm across Taako’s side so they’re effectively spooning. He shuts his eyes and, before long, his gentle arm around Taako’s waist becomes more of a hug, pulling Taako in to nestle more closely. Magnus does his best to keep his mouth away from Taako’s hair, but before long it doesn’t matter because Magnus is asleep once more.

Taako allows his eyelids to droop, but he’s still determined to stay awake, even as the sounds of the storm start to become weaker and weaker. He tries to remember to open his eyes every once in a while, but eventually he forgets to keep up with it, and he falls into a light sleep. The next thing Taako knows, he’s blinking his eyes open to an incredibly bright room, a little too warm to be comfortable, and he’s confused. He can hear faint noises coming from what he believes to be the kitchen but he just groans and squeezes his eyes closed again, carefully turning his body around to be met with a strange-feeling surface. Taako squints his eyes open again, patting the unrecognizable surface with his hand. It shifts, the hand on his waist inching up, and Taako makes a little noise of surprise. He looks up to see Magnus’ face, equally as bleary-eyed as he feels.

“Oh,” Taako mutters, as he remembers falling asleep. He groans one more time and shuts his eyes again, pressing his forehead to Magnus’ chest.

Magnus smile a little at the look on Taako’s face and simply accepts it when Taako decides he’s not ready to keep his eyes open yet. According to Lup, it’s only a little after 8:00 in the morning, and while Magnus would be awake by now on most days, he’s learned Taako tends not to leave his room until at least 9:30. Besides, Magnus knows Taako didn’t even get to sleep until, what, 5:00 or something?

Magnus turns his head to see his rocking chair, now occupied by Merle sipping a cup of tea. Agnus has relocated to the loveseat, sprawled out with one leg hanging slightly off the edge, fast asleep.

With an awareness that he’s probably not going to be able to move until Taako decides he wants to get up, Magnus decides to shut his eyes again. He didn’t sleep much last night, either, after all. He’s able to drift back into a light sleep for another hour or so. The next time Magnus opens his eyes, Taako is squirming around, and he thinks he hears him yawn.

“Fuck,” Taako mutters, rubbing the back of his hand on his eyes.

“Good morning to you too,” Magnus says, smiling faintly.

“Nnh, not sure if I’ve been awake long enough to classify it as good, but mornin’ to you too.”

Magnus chuckles, “Fair enough.” 

“You boys want coffee?” the two of them hear a quiet voice ask from somewhere else in the room.

“Gods, please,” Taako says, stifling another yawn. He slowly sits up, flipping his hair out from his shoulders before stretching his arms upwards. Magnus doesn’t even try not to stare, but looks away right before Taako glances down at him.

“Mags?” Lup asks, and he twists his head in her direction.

“Huh?”

“Coffee?”

“Oh. Yes, please,” he says, and once Taako moves, he sits up as well. Merle is now seated at the small kitchen table with Barry and Lucretia, taking up about all of the space that there is because one side of the table is too close to the wall for anybody to sit. Agnus is sitting up on the loveseat, holding a mug of tea in both of his hands.

Taako rubs at his eyes a little more before padding over to the kitchen, glancing at the stove where a couple of frying pans are already heating up and pancake batter has been mixed. He grabs a scoop for the pancake mix so he can get started on actually cooking the pancakes. He makes a little noise of acknowledgement at Lup when she slides his coffee next to him.

“Not much of a morning person, hm?” Merle says, and Lup just giggles.

“He also didn’t sleep very much last night,” Magnus points out. “How did you sleep, Ango?” Magnus asks.

“Mmh,” Angus blows on his tea and takes a sip of it. “Not too bad, sir. I mean, a boy my age would benefit from a couple more hours and less interruption than what I got last night. Still, in light of everything that happened, I think I slept pretty well.”

“Right on,” Magnus nods and accepts the mug of coffee Lup offers to him, but shakes his head no at the sugar and milk she has to go along with it. “When did you get here, Lucretia?”

Lup smirks a little, “Oh, she’s been-“

“Here for about a half hour,” Lucretia cuts her off, staring pointedly in her direction. Lup sticks out her tongue.

“Oh, uh, okay,” Magnus says. “Um, I guess now is a good a time as any to tell you we gotta check on the boiler room today? There was some flooding.”

“Yes, Lup informed me as soon as I sat down,” Lucretia tells him. “I’m glad your things could be rescued, and we’ll go down to assess any damage as soon as we can… Like, after breakfast.”

“Good choice,” Taako pipes up, flipping a pancake and taking a long haul of his coffee.

“I’m definitely on board with that plan,” Magnus says, sipping his coffee as well. He stretches his arms and groans a little, looking over at his small pile of things in the living room.

The group of them continue with some light chit-chat as Taako and Lup work on drinks and breakfast, many of them still in the process of waking up to the day. It becomes apparent that the wind and rain from the night before have already become part of their memories. With sunshine pouring in from the wide window in the living room, there’s a quiet awareness among them that they weathered the storm, not alone, but with the help of every other individual in the room. It crosses a few of their minds, at different points in the morning, that this group of people, plus a few others, seem to be creating an orbit around each other. If pressed, though, none of them would be opposed to the idea that they might just be destined to become friends. Or family, even. In fact, after braving a storm together, they have an indication that they might just be well suited to fit the role of a makeshift family of sorts. Only time and further stormy weather would be able to test that prediction, of course, but the world continues to turn and thus time will tell what they truly mean to each other.


End file.
